The Trail Blazers will for the first time have a sleeved jersey in their uniform repertoire for the upcoming season.

The white home jersey will have the words "Rip City" on the front. It will be up to the team to decide when the jersey will be worn, Christopher Arena, NBA vice president of identity, said in an interview Monday.

Also for the upcoming season, the jerseys of teams that have won an NBA championship will have a gold tab on the rear of the collar. For teams that have won a single championship, such as the Blazers in 1977, that will be recognized with an image of an NBA trophy. Teams with multiple championships will have designations such as 2X for two championships, 3X for three and so on.

The planned changes were reported on social media last week, as well as websites, most prominently on the blog UniWatch. That blog's chief author, Paul Lukas, cited an Adidas product catalog provided by a source for the expected changes.

Adidas Basketball officials, based at the company's North America headquarters in Portland, initially refused to comment on the report. But over the weekend the company set up media interviews on Monday with Arena as well as David Cho, NBA partnership director for Adidas Basketball, and Whitney Grant, Adidas apparel category manager.

While it is up to an NBA team to determine whether their players will actually wear sleeved jerseys, utilizing the garments for at least one game appeared to be the Blazers' plan.

"The NBA schedule hasn't been released yet, so the debut game hasn't been finalized," Blazers spokesman Michael Lewellen said in an email.

Whether sleeved jerseys are expected to have a permanent place in Blazers' lockers was not clear.

There are "no immediate plans of a permanent option," for sleeved jerseys, Lewellen said, adding, "our goal is to be as fan-responsive as we can."

The sleeved jerseys have been a flashpoint of commentary on sports-uniform blogs and among fans since they were introduced two years ago, first by the Golden State Warriors.

A Blazers official posted a mockup of the sleeved jerseys on Instagram Monday morning, inspiring a variety of comments ranging from likes to dislikes, heavily skewing on the dislike side.

"The sleeves are seriously stupid!" one fan wrote.

"The sleeves look gross," commented another.

Another: "Nooooooo!! Literally NO one likes the sleeves! Sleeveless is a basketball thing ya know? Not a fan of sleeves."

Another: "Barf."

Some NBA players — most prominently LeBron James — also have complained that sleeves inhibit their performance, particularly in shooting. But Arena said the league's examination of statistics shows "scoring is the same with sleeves and without... statistically there is no deviation."

Cho said Adidas designers had come up with a fabric specifically made to enhance range of motion around the sleeves. In addition, players can request a variety of fittings of the jerseys from skintight to loose.

Arena rejected the suggestion that the league and Adidas have developed sleeves to improve jersey sales to fans. The reasoning: Not many people look good or feel comfortable wearing a tank top jersey unless a T-shirt is involved, some uniform commentators have suggested.